Scifi… From A Certain Point Of View

Tag Archives: dvd

One of my biggest pet peeves are when movies are released on dvd/blu ray and there are multiple edition of the same movie. The biggest culprit is the Lord of the Rings series where each movie of the trilogy released as the theatrical version but soon after a director’s cut came along and made these movies even longer. I’m not bitching about the longer version but rather, if you bought the first version on dvd and, like me, love watching the director’s cut, this means more money out of the pocket. Or to boot, Star Trek Into Darkness and how Paramount decided to c-block, (content block, you dick) us by putting the bonus material broken up via iTunes, disc format, and even stores. However, this upcoming release on Gravity may be an exception.

I love movie scores and soundtracks enormously. If a score can live beyond the visual of the film they go with then this is a worthy soundtrack to listen over and over again by itself. Before the age of DVD, there was “laserdisc” which if you saw them, they are the size of a record album. If you’re reading this and saying what’s a record album, you’ve made me feel that much older and a step closer to the grave. Getting back on point, one of the benefits of a “laserdisc” player was the feature to separate the audio from the music so one could hear the score by itself or watch the movie without the score. Doing either option does change the movie watching experience. Flash forward to today, the only movie that I own that does a score isolation was X-Men First Class. The score cue which is one of my favorite is called Frankenstein’s Monster. This is the scene in Michael Fassbender (Magneto) is in South America and stops in a little town bar. As the scene plays out, Fassbender has been looking for these particular men from the days at the camp. The music is low and slow but builds as the scene gets more tense. By the time the men realize what Fassbender is doing with his mutant powers; it’s too late. This dark theme and ominous music for Magneto can fully appreciated being separated by itself and watching the visuals play out. Honestly, the death screams really drown out the music by that point so hearing it by itself is a treat.

Moving to Gravity, I’ve only seen this movie once and it was on the big screen. Thankfully, the score and the visuals worked well together which made me want to buy it on dvd when it came out. At this time, I haven’t and I don’t know why I am hesitant to have this in my collection. After reading this news piece below, thank god I waited. There’s nothing worse than a fan and collector of movies to be stuck with a dvd that did not have all the goodies as mentioned before. So, will I be waiting for this new release? YUP. The absence of music or score does give a movie a different feel. Being that this movie takes place in space and in space no one can hear you scream…wait…wrong movie but you get the idea that in space there is no sound, so why would there be music? The tv series Firefly had no sound for the space shots of Serenity traveling though we did hear music. But my feeling, this may be the best example of not having a score to compliment the visuals. Don’t get me wrong, the score was amazingly good but seeing the climax scene from Hitchcock’s Saboteur where it’s completely devoid of any music during the lead up and the death of the villain speaks volumes. Now imagine that goodness stretched to the entire film and in this case, Gravity. Silence would not only golden but a wonderful change to the non stop ear noise carnage from most movies. I can’t wait to get my copy…. next year.

I was already kind of traumatized by watching Sandra Bullock hurtling through the vast nothingness of space in Gravity; the idea of seeing the movie without its score, where space is as audibly empty as it is visually, sounds chilling. And that’s exactly what we’re going to get in a new special Gravity Blu-ray.

How much does it cost to acquire the “complete” Star Trek Into Darkness blu-ray and how much effort does it take to enjoy it? That would normally seem like an odd question, but Paramount’s inexplicable release strategy has left Trekkies and general blu-ray completists scratching their heads in confusion and frustration. You see, unlike most blu-ray releases, where the studio puts the respective bonus features either on the disc that every consumer can buy from every outlet, Paramount has done something… a little silly. They have spread out the available special features into several different retail outlets. So basically, if you want the “complete” American Star Trek Into Darkness blu-ray, you have to buy it twice. Oh, and you can’t even enjoy some of those features on your television.

Offering an exclusive bonus disc to a consumer if you buy a given film at one specific store is not new. However frowned upon it might be, it isn’t that much of a headache to, for example, buy Disney’s The Avengers at Target instead of Best Buy or Amazon in order to get a 90-minute documentary that isn’t available anywhere else. It’s annoying, as when Paramount put most the deleted scenes of Mission: Impossible: Gho

Why do you say this to me, when you know I will kill you for it. (General Zod! Now, kneel!)

Before the grammar police gets all over my shit, I wrote this out of pure rage. I am not simply going to write this and come back to edit or correct any mistakes; so there.

This has got to be one of the TOP pet peeves of mine. I and countless others have plunked down hard earned cash for the movies that we love and to have the extra content that goes along with it such as commentaries, behind the scenes, blooper, etc. To boot, I want my movies in letterbox format and not that full screen pan and scan bullshit. That’s not much to ask for, right? You want us not to “pirate” media, right? Paramount, do I look like a bitch to you? You think you can fuck me over without so much as buying my dinner first? FUCK YOU. I am beyond livid with this fucking mentality to screw the consumers at all cost because that is what you are doing Paramount. You are forcing consumers to accept this blatant act of trying to make more money off the same product! Oh, did you not learn about variant comic book covers and what a fucking disaster that was?

Like this:

Thanks to 20th Century Fox, I was able to snag a copy of the new Alien Anthology on Blu Ray which just came out this past Tuesday. Do you want this? Do you REALLY want this? Ok, here’s what you need to do.

I am going to make you work for this one but I want you to write a couple of sentences to a paragraph about your favorite horror movie of all time. Submit the entry to me through my email, monsterscifishow@gmail.com or post on my Facebook page. When sending me the email, please make sure your name and mailing address is on the email. If via the Facebook page, I will contact you directly through your post as I don’t want your public information out there.

As far as the number of entries per person, there is no limit. However, each entry has to be a different horror movie review. As an extra entry to increase your chances, if you have listened to my Halloween/Horror podcast this past week, I discussed Alien and Aliens. Where do I rate them on my Top 10 all time favorite horror movies?

For this answer, you can subscribe to my podcast now on iTunes to hear the latest podcast or come back after midnight (eastern) to hear the show streaming.

This contests will run for 1 week until November 6, midnight (eastern). The winner will be chose the next day and will be announced on my Facebook page.

On my Google reader, I came across a tidbit about Summer Glau appearing on The Big Bang Theory (TBBT) show next week from the good folks over at Slice of Scifi. Now that is a great Two-fer that I haven’t seen for quite sometime. If you are interested in some pics of Summer Glau in her Terminator undies click here to go over to Egotastic.com. If you have not seen TBBT, I urge you to go to Target right now and buy the first season on DVD. This is a MUST have for your collection. I was told about this series from my great friend Tigger and recently, Mr Gene who lent me his DVD box set for TBBT. I truly laughed my ass off by all the geeky references. Aside from ringing true for me in many similar situations; they are spot on to the littlest details. I truly admire a show that “gets it” for us fans and showcases our passsions and insight. So go to Target now and I think, the last price check was $15.99; which is a steal. Read below a quick excerpt:

Summer Glau, one of the most successful stars of such huge sci-fi favs as “Firefly,” “The 4400,” and the film “Serenity,” as well as the current Fox series “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles,” is jumping networks for one night on March 9th and moving to CBS.